COURTESY CONN. AGR. EXPT. STA. 
FIGURE 132.—Larvae of the 
saddleback caterpillar, S7- 
bine stimulea, 
: SX. AP ail be 
Mass. in 1906 (149), is still confined to eastern Massachusetts. 
The adult has a wingspread of 30 to 42 mm. Full-grown larvae 
are about 22 mm. long and marked with yellow, blue, green, and 
purple. The larvae feed on a large number of tees, including 
Norway and sycamore maples, black birch, cherry, apple, pear, 
plum, oak, aspen, willow, honeylocust, hickory, and hackberry. 
Adults deposit their eggs either singly or in groups on the 
undersides of leaves. Young larvae feed on the lower epidermis 
of the leaves; older ones consume all but the larger veins. A full- 
grown larva forms a cocoon by spinning a network of threads 
around itself and attaching them to the bark in the forks of limbs 
or twigs. Later it secretes a fluid which fills the spaces between 
the threads and hardens. Winter is spent as a prepupa in the 
cocoon. People are severely irritated when they come into contact 
with the larva’s poisonous spines. The tachinid parasite, Chae- 
texorista javana B. & G., was imported from Japan against this 
species in 1929 and 1930 and has exerted a considerable degree 
of control. 
Prolimacodes badia Hbn. feeds on various hardwoods such as 
oak, beech, and black cherry in the Northeastern States and 
southern Canada. It has also been observed feeding on maple in 
North Carolina. P. scapha Harr. feeds on wild cherry and black 
gum in Massachuetts and New Jersey. Sisyrosea textula (H.-S.) 
feeds on Norway maple and oak; Packardia geminata (Pack.) on 
wild cherry; and Tortricidia flexuosa (Grt.) on oak, gray birch, 
and wild cherry in the New England States. 
FAMILY MEGALOPYGIDAE 
FLANNEL MOTHS 
The bodies of flannel moths are covered with dense coats of 
scales and long crinkly hairs. The larvae are also covered rather 
densely with long soft hairs, with an intermingling of poisonous 
348 
